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Academia Open
Education
DOI: 10.21070/acopen.4.2021.2517
Published: 2021-06-30

Analysis of Teaching Strategies in Reading Comprehension to Seventh Grade Students in Junior High School


Analisis Strategi Mengajar Dalam Pemahaman Membaca Pada Siswa Kelas Tujuh di Sekolah Menengah Pertama

Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo
Indonesia
Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo
Indonesia

(*) Corresponding Author

Keyword reading comprehension teaching strategies Text – Based Instruction Scaffolding exercise

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a person's ability to know and understand the meaning contained in a reading text. Teaching strategy is a teacher’s scheme in teaching and learning process to achieve a aim which have plan. The study aimed to explore teaching strategies and implementation in reading comprehension in seventh grade students at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo. This research method is qualitative research. The subject of this research is an English teacher at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo. The research instrument is a checklist of observations and interviews. The results of the study found that there were three strategies used by the teacher, Text-Based Instruction, Finding the meaning (scaffolding) and exercise (online learning). With Text-Based Instruction the teacher provides several steps to improve students' reading comprehension skills, Finding the meaning (scaffolding) strategies to help students develop ideas that can be read by students, and exercises (online learning) to hone students' skills while studying at home.

Introduction

In English, there are four skills that need to be learned and mastered, namely speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Reading is a skill that students must have to absorb more knowledge and information. Success in learning depends on students’ reading ability. If students' reading skills are weak, they are more likely to fail in learning and they will find it difficult to progress in reading comprehension. But on the contrary, if they have good reading skills, they will be easy to learnd[1].

Reading has several types, one of is reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is one of the most complex activities for someone [2]Reading comprehension is a person's ability to know and understand the meaning contained in a reading text. Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand or create meaning from written text [3] When a somebody reads a text, they are involved in a complex series of cognitive processes. Reading comprehension skills are very important in reading comprehension activities [4].

In general, teaching is a way of creating a process of learning activities that involves the role of the teacher. Teaching is about how teachers convey their knowledge to students. Teaching is the process of guiding and facilitating students in learning. This means that teaching is an ability that involves teacher guidance and learning by regulating certain learning conditions [5]

Teaching strategy is a teacher’s scheme in teaching and learning process to achieve a aim which have plan. The teacher have to apply the strategy to stabilize between the method which the teacher’s used and the way of the teacher’s used to apply the material [6].

As seen from the students' problem in reading comprrhension, teaching strategies are also very influential in the success of teaching - learning process. Teaching strategy plays an important role in learning to reading comprehension. Teaching strategies are certain thoughts or activities that people employ to assist them understand, learn, or insert new knowledge in order to improve students’ success. Therefore, it is important to investigate strategies in learning especially reading comprehension

There are kind of strategies in teaching reading comprehension. It is scaffolding, think aloud, QARs, and Text - Based Instruction [6]. Scaffolding is a learning strategy where students are given assistance in the recent stages of learning then reduce the assistance and provide opportunities to the students for understanding text. Scaffolding allows the teacher to help students who have different meanings then discuss and overcome difficulties in learning situations related to the text [7]. Think - aloud is one of the transactional strategies, because it is a concerted effort process of teachers and students working together to create understandings of text as they interact with it [8]. QARS is the types of questions given to guide understanding must relate to the information students need to answer the questions presented. Therefore, teachers must help students understand sources of information when they respond to questions [4]. Text- Based Instruction is a learning model that emphasizes understanding and the ability to distinguish various types of texts [9]. There are four stages of text based instruction, they are building knowledge of the field, modeling of the text, joint construction of text and independent construction of text [10].

Descriptive Text is a type of text in English that describes the nature of something; it can be humans, animals, plants or inanimate objects [11]. The purpose of this text is to provide clear information about the object it describes to the reader. Descriptive text is presented as written or spoken text [3]. In descriptive text, this text provides information to readers or listeners. The generic structure of descriptive text are identification, it is identify about the subject or something to be describe. Identification usually topic and kind of text. Description, this part is describe about the characteristic of the subject.

In the network (online) is a term from online which means being connected to a computer network. Online learning can also be interpreted as learning organized by formal and non-formal education which requires an interactive telecommunication system so that online learning can be carried out properly. Based on the above statement, online learning aims to make it easier for students to get information or learning even though they are not face to face with the teacher even though they are in a separate location [12].

Moreover, the study aimed to explore teaching strategies and implementation of teaching strategies in reading comprehension in seventh grade students at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo. Hopefully, this study can be beneficial for teacher and students, especially in improving students’ reading comprehension skills. Besides that, students can develop and enhance reading comptehension skills and other skills in their learning process.

METHODOLOGYIn this research, the researcher uses qualitative. Qualitative research is research that uses an analysis of an event in the form of spoken or written words that are observed by researchers, and objects that are observed in detail in order to capture the implied meaning in the study [13]. The type of research used in this research is cluster sampling, which means how to select the research subject individually. The research will be conducted at the SMPN 2 Jabon. The subject in this research is an English teacher who teaches the seventh-grade students at SMPN 2 Jabon. Data collection is use to collect all of the data which is need in this researcher [13]. In this case data is taken from observation and interview. The first is Observation, the teacher was observed by the researcher using the observation checklist. The second is Interview, it is technique of collecting data through direct question and answer to the teacher. Qualitative data analysis was carried out interactively until it was completed, so that the data was saturated. as for the activities in data analysis, namely Data collection, data reduction, data display and drawing conclusion [13].

Result and Discussion

Result

a. The Teaching Strategies in Reading Comprehension

The researcher found that there were three strategies that the teacher used Text-Based Instruction, Find the Meaning (scaffolding) and exercise Strategy (for online learning). The first strategies that the teacher use Text- Based Instruction. Text- Based Instruction used to achieve a wide variety of purposes, for example making experimental reports, telling stories, or explaining something. Text-Based Learning can develop students' critical thinking skills because this learning is very thick with reading and writing, which are the most effective ways to develop critical thinking skills. The second strategies that the teacher used find the meaning (scaffolding), It is a learning strategy where students are given assistance in the early stages of learning then reduce the assistance and provide opportunities for students. This strategy allows the teacher to help students who have different meanings then discuss and overcome difficulties in learning situations related to the text. The third strategies is exercise Strategy. This strategy used for online learning. Exercise is a teaching technique that encourages students to carry out training activities to have higher dexterity / skills than what is being learned.

The strategies above is the strategies used by the seventh grade English teacher at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo when teaching reading comprehension. This is in accordance with the results of interviews conducted by researcher with English teachers in class VII at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo.

What strategies do you use most often when teaching reading material?

“In every reading lesson we try several strategies. But here I share my experience using 3 strategies, namely:

  1. The first is Text- Based Instruction with four cycles BKOF (Building Knowledgw Of The Field), MOT (Modeling oF The Text), JOCT (Joint Construction Of The Text), ICOT (Independent Construction Of The Text),
  2. The second is Find The Meaning (scaffolding)
  3. The third is exercise (online learning)”

b. The Implementation of The Teaching Strategies in Reading Comprehension

The first is Text- Based Instruction is learning that is oriented towards the ability of students to compile text. This strategy has four cycles, namely, BKOF (Building Knowledge Of The Field), MOT (Modeling oF The Text), JOCT (Joint Construction Of The Text), ICOT (Independent Construction Of The Text). Every cycles in this strategy have different job to improve reading comprehension skill. The second strategies that the teacher used find the meaning (scaffolding). This strategy allows the teacher to help students who have different meanings then discuss and overcome difficulties in learning situations related to the text. The third is exercise strategy for online learning. Learning reading in the initial step introduces the type of text which is not characteristic. Then assign students to deepen by looking for examples of the text through browsing.

Discussion

This research focused on the teaching strategies in reading comprehension and the implementation of teaching strategies in reading comprehension at the seventh-grade at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo. From the research finding, the teaching strategies and the implementation employed by teacher in teaching reading to the seventh-grade students at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo were so various. The teacher use three teaching strategies in teaching reading comprehension at the seventh-grade at SMPN 2 Jabon Sidoarjo. Where every strategies has different method and implementation. The first is Text - Based Instruction, the second is find the meaning (scaffolding), and the third is exercise strategy for online learning.

The implementation of teaching strategies in reading comprehension has different steps. Text- Based Instruction is learning that is oriented towards the ability of students to compile text. This strategy has four cycles, namely, BKOF (Building Knowledge Of The Field), MOT (Modeling Of The Text), JOCT (Joint Construction Of The Text), ICOT (Independent Construction Of The Text) [10]. Find The Meaning (scaffolding) were used by the teacher when students have difficulties or cannot understand some of the words that are in the text [7]. The last is exercise strategies. Learning reading in the initial step introduces the type of text which is not characteristic [9]. Then assign students to deepen by looking for examples of the text through browsing.

Reading skill is the process of building a supportive understanding of a text[5]. The reader will reconstruct her or his background knowledge in understanding the text. This is also supported by the statement that reading skills are the product of reconstructing facts in the reader's nervous system.

Conclusion

Based on the research findings and discussion, teaching strategies that the teacher used in teaching reading comprehension in SMPN 2 Jabon were three strategies, Text- Based Instruction, the second is Find the Meaning (scaffolding) and the third for online learning use exercise strategy. The first strategy used by the teacher Text- Based Instruction, can grow about idea which comprehensible. The second strategy was used by the teacher Find the Meaning when students finished reading the text the teacher have students look for difficult words and then look for their meanings together. The third, exercise strategies by looking for examples of the text through browsing. Based on this research, this strategy is considered effective in teaching reading comprehension because it can help students understand the text.

This study also have a limitation which namely taking small scale of the subject. Therefore, thee researcher hopes that next researchers can conduct this research in a wider area. The next researcher can conduct research on the teaching strategies used by an English teacher that are important in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, these results will be more profitable and applied in a wider area to find different strategies and be more able to attract students' interest in learning.

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